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By Agnes E. Donato

SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Variety, ) - The average hotel room occupancy rate is up for the third consecutive month in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas , rising from 63 percent in November last year to 71 percent in the same month this year.

However, the average monthly room rate posted a decline,from $74 in Nov. 2002 to $70 last month.

Ron Sablan, president of the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, said the occupancy rate should be more or less directly proportional to the room rate.

"A high occupancy rate and a low room rate mean hotel owners are almost giving their rooms up for free," Sablan said.

He noted that room rates for the same month between 1992 and 1997 exceeded $100.

Room rates, however, began to plunge in Nov. 1998 as Asia suffered from an economic crisis and currency depreciation. The average room rate decreased to $81.47 in...

By Sam Vulum

Islands Business Magazine

SUVA, Fiji (December, 2003) - The current economic problems in Papua New Guinea have no impact on the emergence of a growing obsession in the country‹the craze for mobile telephones.

Every working class individual wants a mobile phone. Many have already owned one; others struggle to buy theirs, while many more crave for one.

People have gone out of their own way to acquire mobile phones in response to an ongoing marketing campaign that dominated the media in recent months.

The sudden upsurge in the demand for mobile phones has encouraged dealers to come up with purchasing arrangements to attract customers. One dealer has introduced a pay deduction scheme for those who really want one.

Companies involved in the business of communication use the obsession to their advantage. One company has bought all its staff mobile phones with...

By James Apa Gumuno

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Dec. 30) – The second policeman taken hostage by an armed gang in Tari in the Papua New Guinea province of Southern Highlands over the Christmas weekend has been released.

Constable Gordon Magoga, who is attached to Mobile Squad 7, was released on Sunday afternoon unharmed.

A gang of heavily armed men took Constable Magoga and Tari Police Station commander Inspector Julius Tasion hostage on Saturday morning at Warola village while they were conducting an operation to recover stolen firearms. The two men were ambushed by the gang and taken to the rugged hills of Warola where they were held captive.

Local youth leaders Robert Turumbu and Alo Kaiyabe and Tari Town mayor George Tagobe went into the hills and negotiated the release of Inspector Tasion on Saturday.

According to Inspector Gaima Eddie, the staff officer of...

By Haidee V. Eugenio

SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Variety, Dec. 30) - Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas government officials yesterday said any incoming beef traced to the source of the mad cow disease will be removed as a precautionary measure.

The U.S. government has found that beef from a cow diagnosed with mad cow disease reached at least eight states and Guam. As of yesterday, however, local health and quarantine officials said "there is no evidence suggesting any of the potentially infected meat from Guam or the U.S. has entered the CNMI."

Richard Seman, the acting secretary of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources, said they would temporarily ban the entry of U.S. beef products if necessary.

He said while the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not yet issued any official directive, the CNMI government "will not just sit and wait for things to happen before doing something...